1&1 do seem to be one of the bigger providers out there and seem to have the systems to make sure everything works. I've got a number of domains/sites with them and have had very few problems. They have a very easy to use system and I can see no reason to change.

I use easyhosting, who can be found at click here. Packages start at £12 per year which includes registration of a domain. Have used them for the last two years to host a local games league website, and have found their service to be great value.

I opened an account with them a short time ago for a failry large and busy site that will be launched in the fairly near future. So far they've impressed me with their professionalism and reasonable prices - no complaints at all.

I've used lots of different web hosts over the years and, like Forum Editor, I have nothing but good things to say about WebMania.

I set up a domain and registered a new .co.uk address with them and everything was dead easy to follow, euqally easy to set up, and the site went live just under 24 hours after I'd registered it. It was so quick I was nearly caught on the hop; since I only registered to test out their service I had no real immediate need for the domain, so I was almost webless but for a rapid coding session.

Their control panel is one of the best I've ever used, if not THE best - everything is plain and simple with all the information you need in obvious places.

All I can say is that everything worked on time first time and if they continue to provide this level of service over the duration of my contract with them I'll be sending a lot of accounts their way.

They do not offer Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database support but as long as you need or would like FrontPage 2002 extensions, PHP, SSI, CGI, a MySQL database, unlimited subdomains, unlimited POP3 mailboxes, 500MB of disk space and 6GB of data transfer per month, you'd be hard pressed to go wrong for £20 plus VAT per year.

Since my domain went live I've uploaded several different web configurations to it including a database driven site and I've tested it with load testing software to simulate high traffic levels and it came through with flying colours.

You could say I'm impressed and if they offered Windows IIS hosting with ASP, Access, MDE and .NET support I'd have more work for them in short order.

.htaccess can be created on almost any web host these days. Not many hosts don't support directory protection and using the .htaccess and .htpassword combination is a tried and tested, reliable and widely available option.

No, to my knowledge WebMania do not support JSP pages and I don't know of any lower cost hosts that do.

Running JSP pages requires certain significant installs and tweaks to the standard Apache environment, like Tomcat from the Apache Jakarta Project site for example. Alternative dedicated server platforms are available but you'd have to go a long way to beat a Tomacat/Apache system.

I've just run a couple of simple JSP test pages on my WebMania account. Two failed to run at all and one offered a download dialog, which indicates that the files are not being processed by the server.

WebMania make it pretty clear what their hosting does give you and I think that is a great part of their success. Rather than offer a range of hosting options, they have distilled the most commonly used and useful features of a hosting account into what they offer to everyone. All WebMania accounts are the same, they all share the same features and they all offer the same range of bells and whistles.